Adequate warning
If an employee is being punished for violating any kind of company rule, an adequate warning must have preceeded, either through the employee handbook or a signature that states that the employee was made aware of that particular rule.

American Stock Exchange
One of the key stock exchanges in the United States, it consists mainly of stocks and bonds of companies that are small to medium-sized, compared with the shares of large corporations traded on the New York Stock Exchange..

Americans With Disability Act
The ADA protects people with disabilities from employment discrimination

Asset
A possession of value, usually measured in terms of money.

Bear market
A market in which, in a time of falling prices, shareholders may rush to sell their stock shares, adding to the downward momentum.

Bond
A certificate reflecting a firm's promise to pay the holder a periodic interest payment until the date of maturity and a fixed sum of money on the designated maturing date.

Bull market
A market in which there is a continuous rise in stock prices.

Capital market
The market in which corporate equity and longer-term debt securities (those maturing in more than one year) are issued and traded.

Central bank
A country's principal monetary authority, responsible for such key functions as issuing currency and regulating the supply of credit in the economy.

Child Labor Law
This law states what types of jobs children may work and what type of work they can not do.

Common stock
A share in the ownership of a corporation.

Completeness of Investigation
An employee should only be terminated if his/her guilt was proven beyond reasonable doubt. If an employee has been accused, the proof can not rest on assumptions only.

Demand
The total quantity of goods and services consumers are willing and able to buy at all possible prices during some time period.

Dividend
Money earned on stock holdings; usually, it represents a share of profits paid in proportion to the share of ownership.

Dow Jones Industrial Average
A stock price index, based on 30 prominent stocks, that is a commonly used indicator of general trends in the prices of stocks and bonds in the United States.

Economic strike
Economic strikes are not a ground for terminating participating employees and they result when employees strike after a stalemate in negotiations over a contract with management.

Electronic commerce
Business conducted via the World Wide Web.

Equal Opportunity Employment
Equal Opportunity laws prohibit employment discrimination due to race, religion, disability, immigration etc.

Federal Reserve Bank
One of the 12 operating arms of the Federal Reserve System, located throughout the United States, that together with their 25 branches carry out various functions of the U.S. central bank system.

Futures
Contracts that require delivery of a commodity of specified quality and quantity, at a specified price, on a specified future date.

Gold standard
A monetary system in which currencies are defined in terms of a given weight of gold.

Illegal strike
Illegal strikes are considered those, that attempt to force an employer to join a union, prevent the employer from doing business with someone, strikes that begin within 60 days preceeding the labor agreement and the ones that force the employer

Inflation
A rate of increase in the general price level of all goods and services. (This should not be confused with increases in the prices of specific goods relative to the prices of other goods.)

Investment
The purchase of a security, such as a stock or bond.

Laissez-faire
French phrase meaning "leave alone." In economics and politics, a doctrine that the economic system functions best when there is no interference by government.

Market
A setting in which buyers and sellers establish prices for identical or very similar products, and exchange goods or services.

Money supply
The amount of money (coins, paper currency, and checking accounts) that is in circulation in the economy.

Mutual fund
An investment company that continually offers new shares and buys existing shares back on demand and uses its capital to invest in diversified securities of other companies. Money is collected from individuals and invested on their behalf in varied portfo

National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system (Nasdaq)
An automated information network that provides brokers and dealers with price quotations on the approximately 5,000 most active securities traded over the counter.

National Labor Relations Act
This act once guaranteed workers the freedom to form unions without employer interference. Today, however, this guarantee is not given any more.

National Labor Relations Board
Any complaints or questions concerning unfair practices involving unions should be directed to the NLR Board.

New York Stock Exchange
The world's largest exchange for trading stocks and bonds.

NLRA
Also referred to as Wagner Act, this was the first substantial effort by the federal government to reshape the balance of power between labor and management in the U.S.

Norris-LaGuardia Act
Adopted in 1932, this act was one of the first attempts to limit the power of federal courts in labor disputes.

Objectivity of investigation
Were investigations only guided by the goal to prove someone's fault or were all other possible explanations considered?

Over-the-counter
Figurative term for the means of trading securities that are not listed on an organized stock exchange such as the New York Stock Exchange. Over-the-counter trading is done by broker-dealers who communicate by telephone and computer networks.

Panic
A series of unexpected cash withdrawals from a bank caused by a sudden decline in depositor confidence or fear that the bank will be closed by the chartering agency.

Price supports
Federal assistance provided to farmers to help them deal with such unfavorable factors as bad weather and overproduction.

Reasonableness
Although a certain rule might have been stated, one still needs to ask the question, for instance, "Was it reasonable to fire an employee for selling CDs in the breakroom"?

Revenue
Payments received by businesses from selling goods and services.

Salting
This term refers to union organizers that obtain jobs with non-union workers in order to then form a union with those new co-workers.

Securities
Paper certificates (definitive securities) or electronic records (book-entry securities) evidencing ownership of equity (stocks) or debt obligations (bonds).

Securities and Exchange Commission
An independent, non-partisan, quasi-judicial regulatory agency with responsibility for administering the federal securities laws.

Stock exchange
An organized market for the buying and selling of stocks and bonds.

Supply
A schedule of how much producers are willing and able to sell at all possible prices during some time period.

Unfair labor practice strike
Employees who take part in an unfair labor practice strike retain their status as employees. Once the NLRB determines an employer's actions to be an unfair labor practice, employees are entitled to have their old jobs back, even if their employer has hire

Uniformity of the rule's application
It is unlawful to apply rules to singled-out individuals only. Inconsistencies in rule applications violate the Just-Cause context of employer and employee.

Unions
Unions are organizations of workers to improve their working conditions and protect their common interest.

Venture capital
Investment in a new, generally possibly risky, enterprise.

Wildcat strike
A wildcat strike refers to any type of strike that is not sanctioned by the union. Wildcat strikers are not protected by the NLRA provisions and may be permanently terminated by the employer.

Workers compensation
This law assures to pay damages to any employee who has suffered injuries due to an accident at the worksite.

Wrongful termination
In addition to "at will employment" courts have extended the measures to protect a worker's job and have set certain guidelines for terminating employees.